How To Remove Americollect From Your Credit Report

Have you noticed the name Americollect on your credit report?

When you forget to pay a bill, it can lead to a collections account on your credit report from an agency like Americollect.

As long as a collections account stays on your credit report, it can hurt your credit score.

While paying Americollect the amount you owe might seem like the easiest solution, it won’t necessarily help to improve your credit score.

Instead, you’ll need to dispute the debt or negotiate a pay-for-delete agreement.

In the guide below, we’ll tell you more about how Americollect works and show you how to get the agency off your credit report, stopping their pestering phone calls along the way.

What Is Americollect?

Chances are, you’ve never heard of Americollect before coming across the name on your credit report.

While Americollect isn’t a household name, you can rest assured knowing it’s completely legitimate.

Americollect, Inc has been in the debt collection business since 1964.

Headquartered in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Americollect has named itself “the ridiculously nice collection agency.”

3 Ways to Remove Americollect from Your Credit Report

Unpaid medical debts don’t have to hold you back from your financial goals.

With the three strategies here, you can get a collection agency deleted from your credit report.

1. Mail Americollect a Debt Validation Letter

Another awesome benefit of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors must present proof of the debt they claim you owe if you request it within 30 days.

Using a simple debt validation letter template, you may be able to get a collections entry removed from your credit report without paying a dime.

Since these agencies are third-party debt collectors, they don’t always have all of their debts on record.

If the agency is unable to provide documentation, they’ll have no choice but to have the collections account dropped from your report and stop contacting you.

Whether you actually have unpaid medical bills or wound up on Americollect’s radar by mistake, you should always seek debt validation as a first step.

Just make sure to act quickly and send a debt validation letter as soon as you notice Americollect on your report or get a call from them.

2. Negotiate a Pay-for-delete Agreement

If Americollect has been hounding you for more than a month and you’re unable to use the strategy above, you should aim for a pay-for-delete agreement.

While you may be tempted to simply pay the full amount you owe to Americollect to stop their calls, it might not help your credit score.

Even if you pay your debts, the collections entry will remain on your report for several years.

Instead, you should write to the agency, negotiating a lower payment amount to get the collections account removed from your credit report.

You could get Americollect to agree to accept a fraction of the total amount of your unpaid medical bills, with a guarantee that the negative entry will be removed from your credit report.

Once you pay the agreed-upon amount, the entry should be deleted from your credit report in a month’s time.

If there’s been no change to your report after 30 days, you should send a followup letter to Americollect, reminding them of your agreement.

3. Hire a Credit Repair Company

Dealing with a credit repair company can be downright stressful, especially considering the nature of Americollect’s clients.

Medical bills can accumulate quickly and become overwhelming.

If you’re worried about your ability to repay your debts and don’t know how best to proceed, or you simply aren’t fond of the idea of writing and calling Americollect yourself, a credit repair company can help.

They’re pros at disputing claims, negotiating pay-for-delete agreements, and keeping debt collectors in line.

A credit repair company can get your credit score back on track quickly and efficiently, even if your credit situation is complex.

One of the most affordable options for credit repair services is The Credit People.

They can help to improve your score in no time, at a rate you can afford.

Whether you choose to do it yourself or leave credit repair to the professionals, take the time today to map out a plan to get your credit score as high as it can be.

How Does Americollect Work?

Debt collection agencies are often hired by service providers to collect on their customers’ debts. In other cases, they purchase debts from companies at discounted rates.

In both instances, they have the right to contact you and seek repayment.

Americollect is a healthcare collections agency, specializing in the following types of debt collection:

• Hospital collections
• Medical collections
• Radiology collections
• Early out services

The ridiculously nice agency collects for hospitals and medical service providers across the nation, so you could be contacted by them about a missed payment virtually anywhere in the country.

In addition to calling and writing to you, Americollect will also report your debt to one or more credit bureaus, resulting in a collections entry on your credit report.

This type of entry can drop your credit score and continue to hurt it for 7 years.

Thankfully, there are a few strategies for getting the entry deleted from your report quickly and easily.

How to Deal with Americollect

Though Americollect strives to be above board and exhibit compassion to the individuals it interacts with, the agency isn’t without customer complaints.

Between the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Americollect has several hundred complaints.

Many customers have similar complaints, such as:

• Inaccurate reporting
• Failure to validate debt
• Inappropriate contact

These issues often persist because customers aren’t familiar with their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The act restricts the hours during which Americollect can contact you and bans them from contacting other people to coerce you into making a payment, among other things.

One of the best benefits of the FDCPA is that it allows you to stop Americollect from calling altogether.

You can and should inform debt collectors that you prefer to communicate by letter instead of over the phone.

Putting everything in writing is a wise move that can help to ensure the agency follows through and deletes the collections entry from your credit report when an agreement is reached.

The post How To Remove Americollect From Your Credit Report appeared first on Better Credit Blog | Credit Help For Bad Credit.

Original Article Posted at : https://bettercreditblog.org/americollect/